Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce (23 November 1804-8 October 1869) was President of the United States from 4 March 1853 to 4 March 1857, succeeding Millard Fillmore and preceding James Buchanan. A Democrat, he previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NH 1) from 4 March 1833 to 3 March 1837 (succeeding Joseph Hammons and preceding Jared W. Williams) and a US Senator from 4 March 1837 to 28 February 1842 (succeeding John Page and preceding Leonard Wilcox).

Biography
Franklin Pierce was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire in 1804, and he befriended Nathaniel Hawthorne while studying at Bowdoin College and became a lawyer in 1827. From 1828 to 1834, he served as Hillsborough town moderator as a Democrat, and he went on to serve in the US House of Representatives from 1833 to 1837 and in the US Senate from 1837 to 1842. He resigned in 1842 due to his frustration about being in the legislative minority, and his private law practice in New Hampshire was successful. In 1845, he was appointed US Attorney for his state, and he went on to serve as a US Army Brigadier-General in the Mexican-American War, being wounded at the Battle of Contreras and distinguishing himself during the Mexico City campaign. In 1850, he distinguished himself politically by strongly supporting the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, and for supporting a strong union, which led to him receiving support from both the North and the South. In 1852, he ran for President of the United States, and he won the Democratic nomination in an upset. His opponents denounced him as an anti-Catholic alcoholic and a coward, just as many of his former comrades in the Mexican war had, but his support for the Compromise of 1850 and the divisions within the Whig party helped Pierce to win the election in a landslide. At the start of his presidency, he and his wife became heavily depressed when their son Benjamin was decapitated in a train crash which they survived, and his depression hampered his performance. He supported American expansionism and signed the Gadsden Purchase with Mexico, but he failed to acquire Cuba from Spain. He also signed trade treaties with Britain and Japan, but his popularity at home (in the North) sharply declined after he signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, leading to Bleeding Kansas. Several of his diplomats caused a scandal when they issued the Ostend Manifesto, which called for the annexation of Cuba. In 1856, his party decided against renominating him for President, and, during the American Civil War, he became a fierce critic of President Abraham Lincoln. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1869, and he was ranked as one of the worst and least memorable American presidents.